Fernando Alonso says he would welcome James Allison at Ferrari, amid speculation the ex-Lotus technical director is closing on a deal to move to Maranello.

Lotus confirmed Allison's departure on Wednesday and he has since been linked to a top-level job at Ferrari. Allison worked at the Italian team in the early 2000s and also helped engineer Alonso to his title success at Renault.

Alonso refused to confirm or deny the rumours, but when asked about whether he would like Allison to join, he said: "We would always welcome any extra help."

He added: "He will choose what he prefers or maybe he will choose to stay at home - we don't know. We just know the news from yesterday and we don't have any more news. I worked with him pretty closely and I was world champion with him two times and then I came back to Renault in 2008 and 2009.

"In 2009 he was already technical director and we were not so successful. But we've seen the Lotus car in the last three years and it's no secret that he is one of the top men here [in Formula One] and we will see what the future is for him."

Alonso is currently 30 points behind Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the title chase and 20 points behind Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. However, he said the deficit to the championship leaders would have to be more than double that for him to start to worry.

"Last year we were 1.5s [a lap] behind the top cars and we won in Malaysia due to luck and the weather," he said. "This year we finished two races without problems - second in Australia and we won in China. It's a very different feeling and very different package that we have this year and it brings us some optimism and some confidence that we can do a good championship.

"We need to deliver some consistent results and score some consistent points for the next Sundays. We are some points behind now but the championship is long and we've seen many examples of recoveries. The most recent was Sebastian last year; he was 43 points behind us at the summer break and he arrived leading in Austin, Texas. So in five or six races you can recover 45-50 points if you get some consistent results and it was the same with me in 2006. Until we are 75 or 80 points behind we should be optimistic."

The International Rugby Board (IRB) have stripped Australia of the right to host a round of the World Sevens Series, scheduled for Brisbane on 16-17 February, after the Australian government's refusal to provide visas for the squad from Fiji